In our modern societies, we have become accustomed to cubic architecture that facilitates the arrangement of urban spaces. However, the silhouette of certain recent constructions is disrupting this habit, showing that the trend has already begun to shift toward something else: roundness, softness, and harmony. These innovative dome structures are redefining architectural possibilities and challenging traditional building concepts.
The Play Pavilion by Peter Cook represents one of the most recent additions to this architectural revolution. Created in collaboration with the LEGO Group, this colorful structure was inaugurated on World Play Day, June 11, 2025. Located next to Serpentine South in Kensington Gardens, London, the pavilion resulted from a collaboration between Serpentine, the LEGO Group, The Royal Parks, and CONSUL, as part of an effort to connect architecture, design, and public engagement. The structure invites visitors of all ages to explore play as a spatial and creative experience in an immersive environment shaped by LEGO brick forms incorporated into the design, as well as color and movement. The pavilion features windows, slides, tunnels, and scenic spaces that encourage physical interaction, while perforated surfaces from the outside offer glimpses of the interior.
The Blue Ocean Dome pavilion, designed by Shigeru Ban, showcases innovative sustainable construction methods. Built partly from cardboard tubes for the 2025 Osaka Expo, the dome houses several exhibitions by designer Kenya Hara. Located just outside the Grand Ring, the pavilion combines bamboo and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic tubes, seeking to highlight the importance of oceans. It comprises a large central pavilion flanked by two smaller domes, all covered and unified by a polycarbonate envelope. The trio of structures was designed to be lightweight, easy to dismantle after the exhibition, and produce minimal waste. The smallest dome at the entrance, called Dome A, is constructed from laminated bamboo, while the exit dome, Dome C, consists of a cardboard tube structure. At the center, Dome B's structure uses the famous reinforced plastic tubes, an expensive material typically used in aerospace or automotive industries.
In the California desert, the Hata Dome by Ukrainian designer and architect Anastasiya Dudik brings a futuristic aesthetic to the landscape. This 2025 white concrete building punctuated with portholes sits in the Pioneertown desert, a region known for its Western film sets. The vacation home was designed as a simple refuge for "a slower and more connected life," according to the designer. Dudik drew inspiration from Soviet-era brutalism and California's futuristic dome architecture to create this retreat. Inside, small round windows illuminate the two-part floor plan: on one side, a living room, dining room, and open kitchen, and on the other, two bedrooms with private bathrooms. Folding glass doors open the space to a terrace with a pool as round as the house, plus a fire pit and seating area connected by a walkway. A covered carport hides near the house entrance, and all dome openings are bordered with thin light strips.
Apple's first store in Kuala Lumpur, The Exchange TRX, designed by Foster + Partners, opened in 2024 in an underground shop topped by a distinctive dome. This store, named Apple The Exchange TRX, sits next to a shopping center and serves as a transitional space between the mall and surrounding park. Above, the square dome roof overlooks a glass wall, the only visible trace from outside. Designed to resemble a round dome from certain angles, it's covered with metal louvers to protect the underground store from sunlight. The store centers around an open atrium surrounded by an observation gallery featuring exhibition space for Apple products. Floors connect via a quartz and glass staircase, with lower-level passages leading to the shopping center.
The Intuit Dome, designed by AECOM and inaugurated August 15, 2024, serves as the new home for the NBA's LA Clippers and the heart of an innovative sports complex in Inglewood. AECOM led the primary design team for the Intuit Dome, whose architecture takes advantage of Southern California's climate through a gridshell enclosure that encompasses the arena and surroundings, plus informal spaces like interior and exterior terraces connecting the building's main levels. The dome-shaped grid shell proves structurally efficient, consisting of a steel framework inspired by a basketball passing through a hoop. The building envelope comprises interlaced diamond-shaped panels with multiple uses adaptable to different building zones. The interior arena seats nearly 18,000, featuring a halo-shaped LED scoreboard covering nearly 4,000 square meters, providing audiences with massive replay displays.
Wisdome Stockholm, designed by Elding Oscarson, has been disrupting Swedish architectural habits since 2023. Located beneath a vault, Wisdome is a 360-degree dome cinema built primarily from wood, serving as the new annex to the National Museum of Science and Technology. It's one of five Wisdome 3D visualization cinemas in Sweden, enhanced with a spherical auditorium, café, and event space. Inside, Wisdome's unique characteristics become fully visible: floors, ceilings, furniture, pillars, beams, and the central dome all consist of panels of varying thicknesses, crossed wood slats, and Swedish and Finnish pine veneer. Wood as the primary material was central to Elding Oscarson's construction philosophy, and the building's atypical form won an architecture competition.
The Sphere by Populous in Las Vegas looks like nothing familiar from a distance. Yet it's a 17,600-seat venue, standing 111 meters high and 158 meters wide. Conceived in 2023, the venue aims to serve both as a public hall and an enormous luminous advertising billboard in the Las Vegas night. The exosphere covering the dome houses 1.2 million LED pucks, composed of more than 400 mega LED panels each fixed to a steel structure independent of the main building. Through this digital canvas, the building has already projected numerous eye-catching images: emojis, eyeballs, basketballs, and more. Access to the interior hall is located at the dome's base on the plaza, though pedestrian walkways also provide entry. The interior atrium rises 24 meters, surrounded by columns tall enough to support the complete building structure. Along the sides, balconies stack and interweave, creating movement and animation flows.
The Twisted Brick Shell Concept Library by HCCH Studio, created in 2023, sits on a zone separated from Quzou city by the Quijiang River in Longyou County, China. The pavilion, a brick dome almost shaped like a snail shell, draws inspiration from its surrounding agricultural environment and functions as a multifunctional space where visitors observe their environment in a relaxing atmosphere conducive to reading. The venue also serves as a meeting space between urban and rural, consisting of two brick hemispheres connected by a twisted wall section, built from perforated steel plates and cast-in-place concrete. Inside, 24 small acrylic domes are installed at eye level, each adorned with "visual poetry" by Japanese artist Yoichiro Otani, designed to be read with the landscape as backdrop.
The West Bund Dome Art Center represents a remarkable transformation of industrial heritage into contemporary cultural space. This 8,949-square-meter structure in Shanghai, China, hosts art exhibitions, concerts, and sporting events. The 20th-century building, renovated in 2023, takes its name from its location in the West Bund cultural district. During renovation, Schmidt Hammer Lassen used historical construction documents to restore the dome's orange steel structure while adding an independent interior steel layer to adapt the structure to its new function. Previously an asbestos-covered cement factory lacking insulation or inclusive access, the venue now features a vast public foyer with multiple ground-floor access doors, complemented by public facilities and floors lit by translucent roofing and integrated lighting systems.
Finally, the Roskilde Dome by Kristoffer Tejlgaard, designed in 2012, champions doing more with less, inspired by the carbon 240 molecule. Built during the Roskilde Festival to respect alternative community restrictions, the structure consists entirely of plywood held together with numerous nails. Each piece is milled and designed for assembly by two people, making it easily mountable, dismountable, and transportable. Windows puncturing the plywood surface feature vertical panels that facilitate covering with transparent waterproof membrane. This collection of dome structures demonstrates how contemporary architecture is embracing curves, sustainability, and innovative construction methods while creating spaces that foster human connection and environmental harmony.
